Vorgun the Wolf

by Isaac H. Hooke

Mercenary. Wolf. Legend.

Caer Dathach lies gutted, its streets running red with the blood of the conquered. Vorgun the Wolf, a mercenary with a past as savage as his name, has come to collect his due.

But the city holds darker secrets than spilled gold.

Between treacherous allies, a vengeful captain, and a Beast lurking beneath an ancient catacomb, Vorgun must carve his own justice with steel and cunning.

In a land where honor is a fool's dream and death is the only certainty, the Wolf must hunt, or be hunted.

Genres: Sword and Sorcery

86 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 2, 2025

Reviews

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isaac Hooke does a sword and sorcery book! Vorgun, a barbarian mercenary, takes us on a blazing paced adventure as he is challenged by dozens of foes including a Giant Dire Bear! Vorgun is no nonsense, brutal, and champions the essence of a Sword and Sorcery character. He will never give up. He knows life is fleeting, so he relishes and thrives in chaos. I hope his saga continues!

[Andrew Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aurian sell-swords. Cruthin daggers. Ithrain royalty. Narish mercenaries. Skelos priests. Tribal Thanori. Skathuni sea people. A Wolf, a Wraith, a Viper, a Dire Bear, a hyena. Caer Dathach is built on blood and betrayal, but now it's ashes, bones, and ruins. The rumors of hidden treasure and a beast among the catacombs brings out the fangs and claws of man, woman, and beast alike. Isaac Hooke's tale ultimately is a quick, fun romp of violence with a smatterings of bravado. I'd look forward to a continuation of the lone wolf.

"Let them hate. Wolves don't fret over sheep."

"Wolves is wolves and sheep is sheep. You may stay with them but they ain't gonna stay with you." - Mountain Phil in Barquero

"Wolf and Wraith, boots silent on the corpse-city's bones. Somewhere ahead lay gold, blood, and glory. Or a grave dug deep and Beast-fouled earth. Vorgan grinned widely. He was enjoying himself immensely."

"Even lies taste sweet when you're starving." - Salara

"[He] stood firm. He had faced down death in a hundred forms, stared into the abyss, and laughed. He was Vorgun the Wolf."

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

You see these animal analogies throughout: "wolf" in the case of Vorgun, "serpent" (mildly) in the case of Salara, and "sheep" for the standard mook adversaries, and this is certainly a choice that the author made. I'm not sure if the choice is good or bad, only that it is so heavily done for Vorgun to be a distraction, and too lightly done elsewhere to be a thematic touch.

Vorgun himself is an odd creature. He radiates contempt for the 'sheep', the workaday soldiers and conquered populace, but this begs the question of why, as part of the invading army, he is here in the dregs of the city. The story takes its time in answering that, and until that point it feels meandering despite the many fights and threats and various activity.

Setting it in a broken city is playing around with a setting that I've seen done elsewhere and not as well as this, even if Hooke only touches very lightly on the dynamic and the fact that the city was broken before the conquerors even arrived.

I'm not sure if Vorgun as a character has anything more than the one note already played, but certainly don't regret the time spent.

[Scott Spangler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun little read and I look forward to more Vorgun books. First off, I LOVE the language and imagery used from the start. Isaac does an absolutely fantastic job of setting the scene and immediately paints a very vivid picture of exactly who Vorgun the Wolf is as a man and a barbarian. I couldn't like it more if it was Conan himself. A lot of Vorgun's attitude and dialog was my favorite part of the story. I'm anxious to read more of Vorgun's adventures. I don't even mind that the story is short - less than a 100 pages. It isn't often that you get a fun read that you can blow through quickly and still be satisfied. My knock is that some of the story seems a little contrived. I think if it was longer and had a bit more time to develop then things could have more naturally fleshed out. But that really didn't detract from my overall enjoyment. I think if this was a later book in an already established series, then that that wouldn't have been a problem at all. I think it's about 4.25-4.5 stars, but I liked it too much to just give it 4-stars, so I went with 5.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vorgun the Wolf, my forty-ninth read from author Isaac Hooke. Hooke’s writing is Conanesque in nature but everything that made you love in his writing before is present in this new work. It's been a while since he had something new to read, not that I've read everything he's read. “I received a Kindle copy of this 20K word novella and am voluntarily leaving a review." The gifting of this book did not affect my opinion of it. I look forward to reading more from this author. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

[Norman Hirschman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vorgun the Wolf returns to the city he helped capture but it was all in turmoil. But Vorgun wanted Dario who had betrayed him. But the task was not easy and between them was the Beast. A light but easy read.

[David Malaski · Rating 5 out of 5]

The moment I saw this book I was excited. It reminded me of the great sword and sorcery of the 70s with heroes like Thongor, Brak, and Kothar. The novelette was well written with action aplenty and strong dialogue. I would recommend this story to anyone with a love of savage sword and sorcery.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is decently written, with an occasional odd word usage. There’s lots of action and appropriate dialogue. The main character is Vorgun, called the Wolf. A bit of an origin flashback shows how he got that name. I remember reading Robert E. Howard and noting that he occasionally overused the word “black.” Well, Hooke overuses the word “Wolf” quite a bit. I’m not completely clear how to think about Vorgun. Most of his dialogue is egoistic speech, meaning that he talks a lot about how “bad and tough” he is. He’s incredibly cynical about the rest of the people in the world as well, which is close to 100 percent standard among most S&S “heroes.” The ending is about what you’d expect but was decent. Overall, I liked it well enough. Be aware that it’s actually a novella. Not sure how many words but 78 pages in printed form.